International Pacific Halibut Commission members namedPresident Obama has announced he will appoint Don Lane, Bob Alverson and Jim Balsinger to the American delegation on the International Pacific Halibut Commission. Balsinger, head of the National Marine Fisheries Service in Alaska, already serves on the board and has been reappointed to another three-year term. Lane is a commercial fisherman from Homer, and Alverson is manager of the Fishing Vessel Owners' Associat...

Fish Board adds some order to scallop fishing, turns down rockfish proposalWith a unanimous vote, the Alaska Board of Fish has taken a step toward fixing a fisheries problem caused by the Alaska Legislature. Last year, the legislature failed to renew the state’s limited-access scallop fishing program, which expired at the end of last year. With no restriction on the number of boats that could fish for scallops, the state risked overfishing the commercially valuable scallop beds within 3 ...

Lieutenant governor visits Kodiak on campaign tripRepublican Senate candidate Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell visited Kodiak on Wednesday to discuss his campaign with local media and members of the public. Treadwell first walked the Kodiak docks in 1977 when he was writing his Yale University thesis on the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which governs offshore fishing rights. He traveled to Kodiak to visit fishermen and go fishing himself, and has been back many times since. Tread...

City council approves temporary Horizon Lines dealThe Kodiak City Council has chosen to extend the city’s cargo-handling agreement with Horizon Lines. Horizon Lines operates Pier 3 on behalf of the city, but the city’s three-year contract with Horizon Lines expired Dec. 31. Negotiations for a new contract have been complicated by the upcoming construction of a new Pier 3. With negotiations continuing, the council voted 4-0 to extend the existing Horizon Lines agr...

Keep eyes open for auroraIf Kodiak's skies stay clear, the archipelago's residents may be in for a light show. According to the Alaska Geophysical Institute, a solar storm detected Tuesday could bring aurora displays as far south as Colorado and central Illinois tonight. Kodiak will be in prime position to see displays overhead and to the south — if clouds stay away. According to the National Weather Service, Kodiak is expected to see gra...

Board of Fisheries opens four-day Kodiak meetingThe Alaska Board of Fisheries opened its four-day Kodiak meeting on Tuesday as it listened to the first of more than a hundred fishermen who signed up to give the board a piece of their minds. During its four-day stay, the board will address 19 proposals including trawling in state waters and the declining condition of salmon fisheries on Kodiak Island's south end. The board operates on a rotating cycle that retur...

Cattle supporters speak upForty-five Kodiak residents gathered Tuesday night to talk about cattle living on an island shaped like a T-bone. As many as 1,000 cattle inhabit remote Chirikof and Wosnesenski islands, but the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge wants to remove what it says is an invasive species that is overgrazing prime seabird habitat. “There’s no grazing permits, there’s no management,” said refuge manager Steve Delehan...

School board approves tenured teacher contractsThe Kodiak Island Borough School Board approved more than $10 million of contracts for tenured teachers during a special meeting Monday night. The board approved $10,249,271 distributed among 136 certificated tenured teacher contracts for the 2014-2015 school year. Contracts ranged from $35,491 to $87,946 depending on the teacher’s position in the district’s salary schedule. The school board also approved the $26,...

Chamber board member nominations openFour seats on the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce are open for election this year. According to a release from the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce, each of the four vacancies is for a three-year term. Trevor Brown, executive director of the chamber, said one of the four seats was vacated by former Alaska Waste chief Rick Vahl and the other three vacancies are from the expiring terms of Rick Kniaziowski, Bob Brodie and Greg ...

Registration opens for Girl Scouts Women of Science and Technology DayNext month, the Girl Scouts of Alaska will conduct the 22nd annual Women of Science and Technology Day across the state. Girls from kindergarten through eighth grade are invited to attend the Feb. 8 event at Kodiak College. The purpose of the day is to excite young women about STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — and to teach them about careers in those fields. “It’s just to get girls i...